Today I did something crazy. I gave the friend hug to Renee Gill Pratt. She came to the PNOLA neighborhood meeting today. I had her undivided attention for quite a while and quickly covered many questions I have had for her. It was really nice of her to show up so I was nice, I mean, she’s part of the process of planning but it sure sucks not knowing if she will be our councilwoman in three weeks.

The neighborhood is getting down to the business of putting pen to paper and outlining our viability plan. The past few months have been spent evaluating all the property in our area to see what needs to be gutted and what should be targeted for zoning changes to improve the quality of life for residents as well as monitoring sales of large parcels. The PanAm building has been sold to an attorney who will make it mixed use housing for elderly and rent-controlled tenants. Someone from the EPA showed up to talk to us about the Falstaff and Dixie breweries. Looks like Falstaff is being bought to become housing too. Pratt confirmed that the medical corridor is going to be back and that a cancer center will be built at Claiborne and Tulane. A parcel on St. Louis is being auctioned and
the proposed project is Film Factory, LLC. Should Film Factory, LLC be the winning bidder on the property, it plans to build a 320,000 square foot film studio and vocational school at that location. This is a good start but clearly we have a very long way to go in this part of town.

We are going to be using the Lower Garden District’s Renaissance Plan, which they did in 1996 as a guideline for formatting our plan. The document is available from Michelle Kimball at the PRC if your neighborhood would like to make a copy you can call the PRC at 581-7032.

Our neighborhood is doing two other important things; we established ourselves as a 501(c) (3) in order to apply for the federal block grant money becoming available. It’s better than having to go through the larger umbrella organizations like Cityworks or the PRC who are also fighting for a piece of the pie. We hope to get monies for individuals who need to fix up their homes this way as well as for larger improvements to common areas. The other thing we’re doing is having the people who are devoting 20-30 hours a week on this apply to Americorps so that we can get a little money for our volunteer efforts. I think your neighborhood must have non-profit status to do this.

Related posts:

1. Reinventing the Crescent: Designs by Mike Brady
2. Looks like rain.
3. Portal to Permit Hell
4. Gimme two Dixies and some parking meter change, mistuh
5. What Is UNOP?: NEIGHBORHOOD Planning